Students describe riot gas experiences

By Julie Percha, Liz Navratil and Michael Macagnone / Pitt News Staff

published: Mon, 28 Sep, 2009

Pitt students protesting the G-20 Summit — and those observing the activity — encountered clouds of a riot control gas during Thursday and Friday night’s demonstrations in Oakland.

Police brandishing face shields and body armor released the gas along Forbes Avenue, in the Schenley Quadrangle and in Schenley Plaza Thursday night.

Police released gas on Towers patio, near the panther statue on the William Pitt Union lawn and on Forbes Avenue near Bellefield Avenue Friday night.

Freshman Michael Matula said in an e-mail that he was standing on the second-floor patio of Forbes Hall, a Pitt residence hall on Forbes Avenue, when
police threw canisters of OC vapor gas, which landed several feet away from him.

“When you inhale it, your lungs and throat itch, and you can’t do anything but cough. If it gets in your eyes, you become partially blind and it feels like your eyes are melting,” he said. “I ran to my bathroom on the sixth floor and flushed my eyes and choked for five minutes.”

Matula estimated that around 50 people who lived in Forbes were watching from windows, patios and near the ground entrance.

“The situation got panicky very fast,” he said. “There was basically a stampede back into the [interior part of the building], and everyone made their way up the stairs to their respective floors.”

Freshman Elias Tabet was exposed to the riot gas when he was standing on Forbes Avenue Thursday.

He said he was standing on the grass near the Union when a can of just-detonated riot gas rolled to a stop at his feet.

“They threw it at me, and it just smoked,” Tabet said. “I started coughing at first ... it made my throat itch.”

Tabet, who said he was not involved in the protests, said he later picked up the canister to keep as a souvenir.

Police also released canisters of gas on the Fifth Avenue side of the Schenley Quadrangle Thursday and ordered students to step inside the closest residence hall.

Zach Sweigart, a freshman, said he was waiting for a friend outside the Union but was forced into Bruce Hall after the gas detonation.

“I was just waiting there, and then the cops came up and were like, ‘Get out of here!’” Sweigart said. “They just told me to get inside a building.”

Sweigart said he was frightened by the gas but felt more anxious about being forced into a residence hall.

“This isn’t even where I live,” he said.

Also forced into Bruce Hall was sophomore Kevin McMahon.

He was finishing a cigarette outside the residence hall when a police officer ordered him inside.

McMahon said he was upset with the demand.

“This is our residence hall,” he said. “This is where we pay to live every year. Of all the places to try and confine us and say that we’re being unlawful, how can it be in our own residence halls?”

Officers on scene and in the city’s Zone 4 police office, which covers Oakland, declined to comment. Many police forces other than the Pittsburgh Police were involved in the demonstration.

Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizen Police Review Board, said she didn’t think Pittsburgh had seen the level of force used by police in terms of the Long Range Acoustic Device and chemical agents before this past week.

“They were deployed probably the most that we’ve used them in contemporary history here in the city,” she said.

The Citizen Police Review Board is appointed by City Council and is responsible for reviewing police activity.